The problem with trying to get away from it all is that wherever you go, you're still stuck on Earth! Supposing you could go to a fantasy world outside the known universe? I'm proposing that there are far more than twenty locations you could be zipped away to, but I'm only listing my favorites here.
Here are my personal top twenty most beautiful game locations.
20- The world of Dragon Quest VIII.
It's huge, dangerous, and beautiful. It's also one of the biggest game worlds I've ever encountered.
19- The world of Okami.
A painting come to life!
18- The world of Shadow of the Colossus.
One of the most solemn places in video game history. Minus the giants, of course.
17- The world of Chrono Trigger.
Not only do you get a world to explore, you get multiple time periods in which to explore!
16- The world of Braid.
Manipulating time to learn from your mistakes in a virtual piece of art. Wonderful!
15- The world (universe?!) of Mass Effect.
The single most believable science fiction ever set in an amazing universe full of life, love, and danger.
14- The universe of Super Mario Galaxy.
I think the videos speak for themselves.
13- Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda series.
Or, more specifically, Hyrule from Twilight Princess.
12- Rapture from the Bioshock series.
If I ever wanted to go insane and murderous surrounded by equally bonkers individuals, Rapture is the best locale for it.
11- The brains of Psychonauts.
No man is an island. They're a cosmos of craziness! One of the most underrated games EVER!
10- The world of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
This game defines true Medieval romanticism for me. I don't know who did this video, but it's great.
9- The Russia of Metal Gear Solid 3
Dude. It's the jungle during the Cold War and it's full of life and death.
8- The Worlds of the Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Isolation and puzzles do not detract from a beautiful view of alien worlds.
7- The, uh, thingies of Little Big Planet.
I want a Sackboy or girl.
6- Gaia from Final Fantasy VII.
This world mirrors our own in so many ways. And the lives and struggles of the people all over the world illuminate the locations you visit. Also, I know this is from Advent Children, but this is how the game looked in my mind.
5- Earth from the Katamari series.
So...Earth is junk?
4- Ivalice from Final Fantasy XII.
Based on Turkish design, Ivalice is one of the most believable worlds in that the necessities for life to be recognizable as such stand out in this game more than almost any other I've played.
3- The Capital Wasteland from Fallout 3.
It's the opposite of beautiful. But it's done so well. And, by the way, just keep heading North. Tell the talking tree I said HI!
2- The world of Chrono Cross.
The water-ladened world of Chrono Cross blends perfectly with the music of this game. The audio and video combination of beauty make this world painfully hard to say goodbye to it.
1- The ruined world of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
I've never felt the weight of reality in a game so much as I have with this game. You treasure each location and each speck of scenery the entire time you're playing this. I dream about this world fondly.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
How to fix Lost Season 6!
It's no secret that I, along with most of my friends, were disappointed with how the sixth season of Lost turned out. For the most part it was a great deal of stalling, unnecessary characters, pointless twists, and useless episodes all around. It did have some very great moments, though. And I'd go so far as to say that a couple of episodes were some of the best I've ever seen. The Desmond one comes to mind. And, for all this season's other flaws, the final episode was very great and satisfying....as far as the characters (and ONLY the characters) are concerned. And even then, well, I just miss Mr. Eko is all.
But never-you-mind the could-have-beens. I'm proposing several ways that the last season of Lost could have been better as well as more fulfilling. Because if there's anything that leaves a Lost junkie feeling like he didn't have his fix, it's leaving about, oh, 86 percent of the most intriguing and important questions left unanswered!
First, and most importantly, DON'T MAKE SEASON SIX THE LAST SEASON!
Seriously, the way it was carried out made you think you were watching the closing of one of television's most interesting and cerebral shows rounding out its final lap, but...what if it was just to throw us off the scent? What if season SEVEN is around the corner?! And what if it fills in all the gaps left by an almost completely uninteresting season prior to it?
Second, and let's get a little more realistic, GIVE US SOME FRIGGIN' ANSWERS!!!!!@#$%
Here's how you do it: extend season six by two episodes. Got it? Okay, now, make the first four or five episodes jam-packed with the most easily available answers for all of the most long-standing questions. Why is Walt so special? He was born near radiation or something. Who is the economist? Somebody who is more powerful than Widmore. How did the man in black become the smoke monster? There's a demon trapped under the island and whomever comes in contact with it directly becomes cursed.
Now, I know these aren't very good answers. But they are, at the very least, ANSWERS! Cram all these answers in throughout the first handfull of episodes and, no matter how lame the rest of the season is, viewers will say to one another, "Well, at least they gave us some FRIGGIN' ANSWERS!!!!!#%@"
Third, and this is key, maintain the importance of the mysteries.
I likened the characters and story of lost as two peas in a pod: equal and linked. But then in season six, they dropped the importance of the mysteries and almost solely focused on characters. Why? We already love these people! Why try to drive that point home even more? This kind of thinking turned Lost into exactly what it shouldn't have been: a soap opera. It was supposed to be a thinking person's show and it somehow got shifted into an emotional melodrama.
And here's the kicker.....THEY INTRODUCED EVEN MORE MYSTERIES IN SEASON SIX THAT WERE NEVER ANSWERED! Why? WHY?
Listen Lost guys. We loved the show and the characters. And our infatuation with both happened as follows.
One, you showed us broken characters with troubled pasts from the get-go. And you kept that going for the entirety of the show. Which is great. But...
You also introduced even more mysteries about the island and its inhabitants (both native and foreign)! Why not get some of those out of the way?
It's simple when you think about it. We were going to be emotionally invested in these characters regardless. Because they are us. They embody every type of brokenness common to the common man. They're from all walks of life, just like us. But the mysteries unite us. They're what we talked about when the show wasn't on tv. We said to one another "Hey, I think Sawyer is funny, but what the crapsticks is that smokey thing? Where does it come from?"
You see? The thread holding the show together was the questions. And when you abandoned the thread, the pieces fell apart. And there's no way to put them together again. Yet still you expect us to marvel at the beauty of these broken pieces when all we wanted all along was a complete tapestry.
This would have been the lasting wonder of Lost. And now, with the abandoning of the very fibers of mystery that held the larger character pieces together, the show itself is Lost. It's the most aptly named show I've ever seen. And for all the wrong reasons.
But never-you-mind the could-have-beens. I'm proposing several ways that the last season of Lost could have been better as well as more fulfilling. Because if there's anything that leaves a Lost junkie feeling like he didn't have his fix, it's leaving about, oh, 86 percent of the most intriguing and important questions left unanswered!
First, and most importantly, DON'T MAKE SEASON SIX THE LAST SEASON!
Seriously, the way it was carried out made you think you were watching the closing of one of television's most interesting and cerebral shows rounding out its final lap, but...what if it was just to throw us off the scent? What if season SEVEN is around the corner?! And what if it fills in all the gaps left by an almost completely uninteresting season prior to it?
Second, and let's get a little more realistic, GIVE US SOME FRIGGIN' ANSWERS!!!!!@#$%
Here's how you do it: extend season six by two episodes. Got it? Okay, now, make the first four or five episodes jam-packed with the most easily available answers for all of the most long-standing questions. Why is Walt so special? He was born near radiation or something. Who is the economist? Somebody who is more powerful than Widmore. How did the man in black become the smoke monster? There's a demon trapped under the island and whomever comes in contact with it directly becomes cursed.
Now, I know these aren't very good answers. But they are, at the very least, ANSWERS! Cram all these answers in throughout the first handfull of episodes and, no matter how lame the rest of the season is, viewers will say to one another, "Well, at least they gave us some FRIGGIN' ANSWERS!!!!!#%@"
Third, and this is key, maintain the importance of the mysteries.
I likened the characters and story of lost as two peas in a pod: equal and linked. But then in season six, they dropped the importance of the mysteries and almost solely focused on characters. Why? We already love these people! Why try to drive that point home even more? This kind of thinking turned Lost into exactly what it shouldn't have been: a soap opera. It was supposed to be a thinking person's show and it somehow got shifted into an emotional melodrama.
And here's the kicker.....THEY INTRODUCED EVEN MORE MYSTERIES IN SEASON SIX THAT WERE NEVER ANSWERED! Why? WHY?
Listen Lost guys. We loved the show and the characters. And our infatuation with both happened as follows.
One, you showed us broken characters with troubled pasts from the get-go. And you kept that going for the entirety of the show. Which is great. But...
You also introduced even more mysteries about the island and its inhabitants (both native and foreign)! Why not get some of those out of the way?
It's simple when you think about it. We were going to be emotionally invested in these characters regardless. Because they are us. They embody every type of brokenness common to the common man. They're from all walks of life, just like us. But the mysteries unite us. They're what we talked about when the show wasn't on tv. We said to one another "Hey, I think Sawyer is funny, but what the crapsticks is that smokey thing? Where does it come from?"
You see? The thread holding the show together was the questions. And when you abandoned the thread, the pieces fell apart. And there's no way to put them together again. Yet still you expect us to marvel at the beauty of these broken pieces when all we wanted all along was a complete tapestry.
This would have been the lasting wonder of Lost. And now, with the abandoning of the very fibers of mystery that held the larger character pieces together, the show itself is Lost. It's the most aptly named show I've ever seen. And for all the wrong reasons.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Happy, Sad, Scared, Tranquil.
Here are 20 video game tracks split up into four groups of five. I did a post like this on my last go 'round with The Save Point and accidentally deleted it. I should have kept it and expounded on it a little, but my delete finger was itchy and it's now gone.
Thus, with hindsight what it is, I'm offering a new list, a little more thought out and offering less of an individual category, yet still varied enough to account for a top 20 list.
NOTE! The requirements for the lists is as follows:
To be considered for the Happy category, a song must invoke a smile or a cheer. The song doesn't have to be bubbly or cute, but it does have to get you pumped up.
To be a sad song, it must invoke feelings of longing, both for the game and for something lost.
To be a scary song it must invoke feelings of unease, dread, or just garden-variety spookyness.
And to be tranquil, it must invoke feelings of introspection, quietness of mind, and perhaps sleepiness.
So, here goes.
My Top Five Happy Songs (in no particular order).
5- Final Fantasy VII, Battle Theme.
4- Street Fighter II, Guile's Theme.
3- Super Mario Galaxy 2, Yoshi Star Galaxy.
2- Portal, Still Alive.
1- Every Katamari Game, All of 'em. Seriously, take your pick. But for brevity, I'll just list a couple from the first two games.
Okay, and now we're on to My Top Five Sad Songs.
5- Chrono Trigger, At The Bottom Of The Night.
4- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Way To Fall.
3- Final Fantasy X-2, Yuna's Ballad.
2- Donkey Kong Country, Aquatic Ambiance.
1- Chrono Cross, Life.
My Top Five Scariest Songs.
5- The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Light and Darkness (Zant)
4- Earthbound, Giygas Theme.
3- Quake, Castle Of The Damned.
2- Super Castlevania IV, Dracula Battle.
1- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Abandoned Pit.
My Top Five Tranquil Songs.
5- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Wings of Kynareth.
4- Ico, Heal.
3- We Love Katamari, Blue Orb.
2- Final Fantasy XII, Eruyt Village.
1- Dragon Quest VIII, Heavenly Flight.
Thus, with hindsight what it is, I'm offering a new list, a little more thought out and offering less of an individual category, yet still varied enough to account for a top 20 list.
NOTE! The requirements for the lists is as follows:
To be considered for the Happy category, a song must invoke a smile or a cheer. The song doesn't have to be bubbly or cute, but it does have to get you pumped up.
To be a sad song, it must invoke feelings of longing, both for the game and for something lost.
To be a scary song it must invoke feelings of unease, dread, or just garden-variety spookyness.
And to be tranquil, it must invoke feelings of introspection, quietness of mind, and perhaps sleepiness.
So, here goes.
My Top Five Happy Songs (in no particular order).
5- Final Fantasy VII, Battle Theme.
4- Street Fighter II, Guile's Theme.
3- Super Mario Galaxy 2, Yoshi Star Galaxy.
2- Portal, Still Alive.
1- Every Katamari Game, All of 'em. Seriously, take your pick. But for brevity, I'll just list a couple from the first two games.
Okay, and now we're on to My Top Five Sad Songs.
5- Chrono Trigger, At The Bottom Of The Night.
4- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Way To Fall.
3- Final Fantasy X-2, Yuna's Ballad.
2- Donkey Kong Country, Aquatic Ambiance.
1- Chrono Cross, Life.
My Top Five Scariest Songs.
5- The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Light and Darkness (Zant)
4- Earthbound, Giygas Theme.
3- Quake, Castle Of The Damned.
2- Super Castlevania IV, Dracula Battle.
1- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Abandoned Pit.
My Top Five Tranquil Songs.
5- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Wings of Kynareth.
4- Ico, Heal.
3- We Love Katamari, Blue Orb.
2- Final Fantasy XII, Eruyt Village.
1- Dragon Quest VIII, Heavenly Flight.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
An awesome, a meh, and a facepalm.
AWESOME!
It's not exactly current news, but has anyone out there developed an addiction to everything that is Mass Effect related? I seriously haven't played a series of games so gratifying since I became addicted to being startled and compulsively played the boardgame Operation for 6 months straight.
For those of you not in the know (which, at this point, if I keep getting my friends to play Mass Effects 1 and 2, will be no one), Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG with varying degrees of action and shooter elements. It's very reliant on character development, story, and atmosphere. By the way, the locations are beautiful:
Combining these three things in a game almost always spells boredom for the casual player (i.e. my wife) unless you have an immense amount of customization of any one of the three aforementioned elements for the player to manipulate. And, lo, Mass Effects 1 and 2 (there's a third one on the way to complete the experience) deliver on the story front in spades (I never wanted to use that phrase, but nothing else sounded any better, so there).
You start out with the option of customizing your character's face and race, but not much else. The atmosphere (setting, design, and world layout) is mostly set so there's not much out-of-bounds going on. Cities are big and worlds are bigger and you get to explore both to your heart's content so far as it goes. Interplanetary travel is done with a rover-styled vehicle and you basically uncover ancient artifacts on uncharted planets with the odd space worm battle or secret base full of pirates. But ultimately, the characters, races, and story are where it's at.
Every single conversation can branch off and go in directions unheard of in choice-heavy games of yore. And almost anything you say and do can either help or hurt your chances of successful character interactions and relations (even the bedroom kind) later on in the game. And character interactions and alien relations (even the bedroom ki....well, you'll see) abound!
Whatever you did in the first game gets imported into the sequel and opens up tons of new options depending on whether you were a Paragon (a good character who lives by morally good standards) or a Renegade (a jar-head douchebag; sometimes being a jerk is the only way to accomplish a task, however). And not to be limited solely to the choices you made in the first game, whatever you do in Mass Effect 2 can actually have dire ramifications throughout the rest of the trilogy.
You gain new crewmembers in 2, and if you don't help them in ways that earn their loyalty, they won't perform to the best of their abilities for you at the end of the game resulting in a single, multiple deaths. Including you, the main character! If your character dies in Mass Effect 2, it's a permanent death. In Mass Effect 3, you'll have to create a new character and carry out a secondary story line to fill shoes made by the main character (Commander Shepherd) from both Mass Effects prior. If you live, you get to import the same character into 3 and carry on the mission.
Oh, and the music? Bleepin' AMAZING!
I've said all of that to say this: I'm obsessed with these games and give them all the thumbs up I have to give. All 9999 of 'em.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
....meh....
Hey, remember that amazing show Lost that wowed us all with 5 seasons of metaphysical and scientific amazingness and characters that were deep enough to drown unaccustomed viewers?
I really can't recommend it to anyone now. Which is strange because my M.O. in life at one point was to get the world united under a banner of Lost. Now, I can't do that because, guess what, you won't be gratified by the final season!
It's the old switcheroo with Lost, I'm afraid. The creators of the show built it up to be equal parts story, mystery, characters, and science, then, for some reason or 'nother, dropped all but the character aspect of it out of season 6! What gives?
Here's the thing: I honestly loved the final episode. Loved it. All the characters (minus some odds and ends) got what they wanted which is closure and the feeling of something found. Which is fine if all I cared about were the characters. But what about the other 90 bajillion questions asked by every viewer of Lost the world over? Oops! Sorry, you don't get anything but the excuse that it was all Red Herrings and prompters to get you to watch the show longer than you probably would have if it had been only about the characters all along!
But it wasn't about the characters solely. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they got their itches scratched, but man, what about MY itches?!
Season six, ultimately, was a throwaway season with only a very few decent episodes and only one truly good one.
Wanna know how I feel about the show now?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FACEPALM*
I can't say that I'm a fan of games without saying that I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy series. Or, rather, I was once a huge fan and now my loyalty is dwindling.
I had insane, massive hopes for Final Fantasy XIII. I was expecting this complex game with great characters, layered stories, a dynamic new battle system, and a free-form way to upgrade my character statistics. I think I can sum up the entire game with this detailed image of the combined area maps from the first 5 hours of the game:
Now compare that to the maps of the game before it, FFXII:
Pret-ty big drop off if you ask me.
So, besides the maps, what other stifles does this game present to the once proud Final Fantasy lineage? Tons actually. And here's the thing, nothing in this game is awful. Nothing's great either (except for the graphics and music, which are both beautiful, no doubt), but everything is almost uniformly blah. The characters, while interesting enough, offer nothing to the player with which to empathize. The weapons are yawn. The story is not only told in segments, but in random and hard to place flashbacks. The battle system, while fun and vigorous, gets old quick. It's the equivalent of being really hungry for pancakes, getting some for breakfast, and instead of sides and something to drink, they give you mini pancakes and a maple syrup shake. It's too much all the time.
Now I won't criticize the fact that you only technically control just the main character in battle. That's nothing bad. What's bad is that they give every single character a special ability (that is only attainable near the friggin' end of the game!) and a special Eidolon or summon monster. These summon monsters are weak at best, but they do have pretty neat special abilities of their own. Only, to use them, you have to have a specific character as the lead in your party at that time. So, is there some easy way to switch out your character with the press of a single button or going to a sub-menu? Nope. You have to wait until the battle is over, switch characters and their battle paradigms (more on them in a sec) and find another enemy to maul just so you can utilize said Eidolon's unique power. This is just over indulgent. I know making things complex is the Final Fantasy trademark, but complex and complicated are two different things. This one falls under the latter.
As for the fast paced and frustrating battle system... you have preset paradigms that determine how your character acts towards enemies and allies. I won't list all set paradigms, but suffice it to say there's plenty enough to keep you busy and you have to swap them out at will in battle....ALL THE TIME! There's no breathing room, ever. And here's the kick in the teeth: they give you the option to choose your attacks and defensive moves, but you'll spend 99.99% of the game hitting "Auto Battle" from the battle menu. And if all this sounds confusing, here's a video of the battle system in action. Note: every time the characters have a strange color swirl surrounding them, they're changing paradigms. Also, all that rad moving and slicing and dodging you're seeing? Yeah, the game does that on its own. You just press a single button over and over and hope that it looks pretty on the receiving end.
Here's some sample dialogue:
*snore*
And that's about it. I would offer more comparisons to other, better games in the series, but to do that, I'd need thousands of hours and tons more resources than I'm willing to muster just to prove that FFXIII is just not very good. Take my word for it, Final Fantasies 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 12 are well worth the time and money, with the sixth installment being the greatest.
It's not exactly current news, but has anyone out there developed an addiction to everything that is Mass Effect related? I seriously haven't played a series of games so gratifying since I became addicted to being startled and compulsively played the boardgame Operation for 6 months straight.
For those of you not in the know (which, at this point, if I keep getting my friends to play Mass Effects 1 and 2, will be no one), Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG with varying degrees of action and shooter elements. It's very reliant on character development, story, and atmosphere. By the way, the locations are beautiful:
Combining these three things in a game almost always spells boredom for the casual player (i.e. my wife) unless you have an immense amount of customization of any one of the three aforementioned elements for the player to manipulate. And, lo, Mass Effects 1 and 2 (there's a third one on the way to complete the experience) deliver on the story front in spades (I never wanted to use that phrase, but nothing else sounded any better, so there).
You start out with the option of customizing your character's face and race, but not much else. The atmosphere (setting, design, and world layout) is mostly set so there's not much out-of-bounds going on. Cities are big and worlds are bigger and you get to explore both to your heart's content so far as it goes. Interplanetary travel is done with a rover-styled vehicle and you basically uncover ancient artifacts on uncharted planets with the odd space worm battle or secret base full of pirates. But ultimately, the characters, races, and story are where it's at.
Every single conversation can branch off and go in directions unheard of in choice-heavy games of yore. And almost anything you say and do can either help or hurt your chances of successful character interactions and relations (even the bedroom kind) later on in the game. And character interactions and alien relations (even the bedroom ki....well, you'll see) abound!
Whatever you did in the first game gets imported into the sequel and opens up tons of new options depending on whether you were a Paragon (a good character who lives by morally good standards) or a Renegade (a jar-head douchebag; sometimes being a jerk is the only way to accomplish a task, however). And not to be limited solely to the choices you made in the first game, whatever you do in Mass Effect 2 can actually have dire ramifications throughout the rest of the trilogy.
You gain new crewmembers in 2, and if you don't help them in ways that earn their loyalty, they won't perform to the best of their abilities for you at the end of the game resulting in a single, multiple deaths. Including you, the main character! If your character dies in Mass Effect 2, it's a permanent death. In Mass Effect 3, you'll have to create a new character and carry out a secondary story line to fill shoes made by the main character (Commander Shepherd) from both Mass Effects prior. If you live, you get to import the same character into 3 and carry on the mission.
Oh, and the music? Bleepin' AMAZING!
I've said all of that to say this: I'm obsessed with these games and give them all the thumbs up I have to give. All 9999 of 'em.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
....meh....
Hey, remember that amazing show Lost that wowed us all with 5 seasons of metaphysical and scientific amazingness and characters that were deep enough to drown unaccustomed viewers?
I really can't recommend it to anyone now. Which is strange because my M.O. in life at one point was to get the world united under a banner of Lost. Now, I can't do that because, guess what, you won't be gratified by the final season!
It's the old switcheroo with Lost, I'm afraid. The creators of the show built it up to be equal parts story, mystery, characters, and science, then, for some reason or 'nother, dropped all but the character aspect of it out of season 6! What gives?
Here's the thing: I honestly loved the final episode. Loved it. All the characters (minus some odds and ends) got what they wanted which is closure and the feeling of something found. Which is fine if all I cared about were the characters. But what about the other 90 bajillion questions asked by every viewer of Lost the world over? Oops! Sorry, you don't get anything but the excuse that it was all Red Herrings and prompters to get you to watch the show longer than you probably would have if it had been only about the characters all along!
But it wasn't about the characters solely. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they got their itches scratched, but man, what about MY itches?!
Season six, ultimately, was a throwaway season with only a very few decent episodes and only one truly good one.
Wanna know how I feel about the show now?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FACEPALM*
I can't say that I'm a fan of games without saying that I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy series. Or, rather, I was once a huge fan and now my loyalty is dwindling.
I had insane, massive hopes for Final Fantasy XIII. I was expecting this complex game with great characters, layered stories, a dynamic new battle system, and a free-form way to upgrade my character statistics. I think I can sum up the entire game with this detailed image of the combined area maps from the first 5 hours of the game:
Now compare that to the maps of the game before it, FFXII:
Pret-ty big drop off if you ask me.
So, besides the maps, what other stifles does this game present to the once proud Final Fantasy lineage? Tons actually. And here's the thing, nothing in this game is awful. Nothing's great either (except for the graphics and music, which are both beautiful, no doubt), but everything is almost uniformly blah. The characters, while interesting enough, offer nothing to the player with which to empathize. The weapons are yawn. The story is not only told in segments, but in random and hard to place flashbacks. The battle system, while fun and vigorous, gets old quick. It's the equivalent of being really hungry for pancakes, getting some for breakfast, and instead of sides and something to drink, they give you mini pancakes and a maple syrup shake. It's too much all the time.
Now I won't criticize the fact that you only technically control just the main character in battle. That's nothing bad. What's bad is that they give every single character a special ability (that is only attainable near the friggin' end of the game!) and a special Eidolon or summon monster. These summon monsters are weak at best, but they do have pretty neat special abilities of their own. Only, to use them, you have to have a specific character as the lead in your party at that time. So, is there some easy way to switch out your character with the press of a single button or going to a sub-menu? Nope. You have to wait until the battle is over, switch characters and their battle paradigms (more on them in a sec) and find another enemy to maul just so you can utilize said Eidolon's unique power. This is just over indulgent. I know making things complex is the Final Fantasy trademark, but complex and complicated are two different things. This one falls under the latter.
As for the fast paced and frustrating battle system... you have preset paradigms that determine how your character acts towards enemies and allies. I won't list all set paradigms, but suffice it to say there's plenty enough to keep you busy and you have to swap them out at will in battle....ALL THE TIME! There's no breathing room, ever. And here's the kick in the teeth: they give you the option to choose your attacks and defensive moves, but you'll spend 99.99% of the game hitting "Auto Battle" from the battle menu. And if all this sounds confusing, here's a video of the battle system in action. Note: every time the characters have a strange color swirl surrounding them, they're changing paradigms. Also, all that rad moving and slicing and dodging you're seeing? Yeah, the game does that on its own. You just press a single button over and over and hope that it looks pretty on the receiving end.
Here's some sample dialogue:
*snore*
And that's about it. I would offer more comparisons to other, better games in the series, but to do that, I'd need thousands of hours and tons more resources than I'm willing to muster just to prove that FFXIII is just not very good. Take my word for it, Final Fantasies 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 12 are well worth the time and money, with the sixth installment being the greatest.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Retry.
Here goes round two. I've deleted all my old posts because I don't feel like they were up to any kind of high standard. When starting a blog, it's easy to become self-important. I was posting whatever garbage happened to be in my head at that given time just to fill a space.
So.
I took some time off, studied some things in different lights, and now have more, and I hope, better things to say.
Stay tuned and I'll drop some science on your brain.
So.
I took some time off, studied some things in different lights, and now have more, and I hope, better things to say.
Stay tuned and I'll drop some science on your brain.
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